HS BOYS BASKETBALL: MHS jumps out early, rolls past Lee

Published 3:58 pm, Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Midland High's Courtney McMaryion (12) takes the ball down the court against Lee High on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016 at Chaparral Center. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Midland High's Courtney McMaryion (12) takes the ball down the court against Lee High on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016 at Chaparral Center. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: James Durbin

HS BOYS BASKETBALL: MHS jumps out early, rolls past Lee

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The Midland High boys basketball team got exactly the start it was hoping for on Tuesday against cross-town rival Lee.

Hot shooting, a smothering full-court press and a balanced scoring effort helped the Bulldogs take a commanding halftime lead and they never looked back in an 84-68 District 3-6A win at Chaparral Center.

With his team coming off of a 72-64 loss at Abilene High on Friday, MHS (7-12, 1-1 in District 3-6A) head coach Shan Hooker said he was pleased with the way his team set the tone early in the game against the Rebels (3-15, 0-2 in District 3-6A).

“This is about our fifth game where we’ve had the defensive intensity, we shot the ball well, ran the floor well,” Hooker said. “This is what we’ve been working towards all year. We’re setting the pace, we’re setting the tone of the game. That’s what we ask the boys to go out there and do as a coaching staff. Go jump on them, get after it and do what we do.”

In just his second game after missing the entire non-district season, Courtney McMaryion’s play in particular had a significant impact in the Bulldogs’ victory.

McMaryion was quiet in the first quarter but then poured in 11 of his 18 points in the second. Over one stretch, he hit three consecutive 3-pointers and had the MHS faithful fired up as the Bulldogs eventually took a 44-24 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.

Throughout the evening, MHS was the aggressor both offensively and defensively and McMaryion -- using his heralded length and athleticism -- had quite a bit to do with that.

“We’ve been practicing like that the whole week getting ready to play Lee” McMaryion said. “(We were) working on our shots, working on our basics. So it just felt good coming out and hitting like that.”

As expected, the game’s pace was intense with both teams coming out with plenty of energy right after the tip.

But the two teams quickly fell in love with the outside shot and by the end of the first half, the game had turned into a 3-point contest. After the first 16 minutes of play, MHS and Lee had taken a combined 28 3-point attempts.

The Rebels, who were without freshman sharpshooter Avery Chambers due to academic ineligibility, hit their first three shots from distance to open the third quarter and cut MHS’ lead to 14.

But the rest of the game, the two teams exchanged baskets and kept up with each other. Though they outscored MHS in the second half, the Rebels simply got down by too much in the first half to mount a comeback at the end.

For Lee head coach Chris Packer, Tuesday’s game was the complete opposite of the Rebels’ loss to Odessa Permian on Friday. Against the Bulldogs, scoring and generating offense wasn’t the agonizing issue that it was in a 23-point effort against the Panthers.

“We made shots but didn’t play a lick of defense,” Packer said. “We played defense (Friday) night and didn’t play any offense. We’ve just got to play both sides of the floor and we’ve got to put it all together.”